Parked the car late last Fall. It ran fine. The car sat for 6 months and was not started until late this Spring. When it started, it made a hell of clatter. This happened once before when I bought it. It had sat for several months and then quieted down rather quickly once ran. I figured the lifters bled down. This time, it never really quieted down. I added some Marvel Mystery Oil, about 8 oz. thinking there may be some varnish on the lifters preventing them from building up. I drove it gently for 10 miles Doing the long screwdriver test, cylinders 4, 5, 6, & 8 were suspect. Cylinder 4 did start to quiet down. I'd like to think miracles can come from a can, but I am planning to take the rocker covers off just to make sure the rocker arms are OK and nothing backed off.

It has Amsoil in it that has about 700 miles on it in the past 2 years. I'd like to be able to flush it and go back to Mobil One.

I pulled the rocker arm cover off the right side first. A couple of the rocker arms have some play in them. Not much, but seems indicative of collapsed lifters. I am wondering if just snugging down to zero lash per the FSM and then flushing and replacing the oil would solve my problems or will I lose to much lift hurting performance? Or, am I just in it for the long haul and should replace the entire set of lifters?